For twenty years Jason Gerhardt has professionally practiced and taught permaculture design in diverse environments from the hyper-arid US Southwest to underserved neighborhoods in North St. Louis to a refugee community in Central America. Jason’s design portfolio includes academic campus planning, regenerative agriculture site development, organizational strategizing, food justice initiatives, farmer-accelerator program development, and extensive work with conservation organizations. Jason has taught thousands of students for Naropa University, University of Colorado, the US EPA, and Oregon State University, among dozens of private and public institutions. A developer of multiple land-based enterprises for ecological community development, he holds a BA in Sustainable Design from Prescott College, as well as Permaculture Diplomas in the fields of Site Design, Education, and Research from both the Permaculture Institute, Inc., and Permaculture Institute of North America.

Jason is an outstanding vegetable grower using human-scale methods, an accomplished agroforestry systems designer, and a renowned ecological water management consultant, often combining all three of these specialties in the design of agroecosystems.

Jason serves as Co-Director of the Permaculture Institute, Inc., and founder of Real Earth Design. His emphasis is at the union of the natural world and human culture. A student of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh for over twenty years, he applies a keen awareness of ecosystems, society, and self to his transformative work connecting people to all life. He is a devoted husband, paddler, writer, and farmer. When not serving his students and professional community, he can be found joyfully immersed in innovative farms, rivers, mountain lakes, and cityscapes.